What Performance Max can mean for your business
Written by Jamie Schelling
Digital Marketing & AI Automation
Google Ads is an indispensable channel in the digital marketing strategy of businesses. Thanks to the huge network of Google Search, Display, YouTube and Discovery, you can reach your target audience everywhere. But Google Ads keeps innovating too. In the past you had to create separate campaigns for each channel, but for some time now a new campaign type has been available called Performance Max. With this type of campaign you reach your target audience through an effective cross-channel campaign.
Performance Max is intended as a complement to your other campaigns. You can think of it as a kind of safety net that catches the remaining traffic. So make sure you have at least one other (search) campaign running. If you don't, Performance Max won't work optimally, because it needs to use valuable information from your other campaigns.
The different channels
Performance Max is therefore one campaign that advertises on several channels. Below you can read how it works for each channel.
Search ads: Performance Max shows ads in the search network. Google looks for the most relevant search terms for you. You don't add these manually, as you would with a regular search campaign. You can, however, steer the Google algorithm by providing frequently used keywords.
Display ads: Performance Max can also manage display ads. For this you upload up to twenty images, which are shown on various websites in the Google Display Network. This lets you reach a broader audience with visual ads, and make people familiar with your product.
Video ads: Performance Max also supports video ads via YouTube and other video platforms. You can upload up to 5 videos via YouTube so that Google can test which works best. Don't have any videos of your own? Then Google creates a video itself based on the photos you have submitted. It is advisable, though, to supply your own videos to safeguard the quality and your branding.
Shopping ads: If you have a Google Merchant Center account, you can also advertise via Shopping. You can easily link your feed to the campaign. If you don't have a Merchant Center, you can simply leave this empty. Google Ads then does not include Shopping in your Performance Max campaign.
Best practices for Performance Max
Because of its complexity, Performance Max is very prone to mistakes. That is why it is important to set up the campaign properly. So go through the best practices below carefully.
- Make use of remarketing lists. For this campaign type, the more information the better. Remarketing lists are very important for this type of campaign to give the algorithm the right direction. Through the observation function, Google's algorithm knows which type of user is important for your business.
- Add your brand name as an exclusion if you also run branded search campaigns. Otherwise Performance Max may take traffic away from your search campaign. Because of these cheap clicks, it looks as if your Performance Max is performing better than it actually is, since this traffic would otherwise have come in through your branded campaign. You exclude a brand list in the campaign's additional settings.
- Keep it simple. Many accounts are fine with a single Performance Max campaign. You can then create a separate asset group per product category. An exception is when you sell different products with widely varying margins. In that case it is better to set up one Performance Max campaign with a high ROAS target and one with a lower ROAS target.
- Give the campaign time to learn. Precisely because Performance Max is so extensive, it has a longer learning period than other types of campaigns. So let your campaign run for at least 6 weeks before you analyse the first results. If you make changes in the meantime, the learning process only takes longer.
- Once the campaign is out of the learning phase, check your components regularly. Look at which products, headlines, descriptions and images perform well. Components that perform less well can be adjusted, replaced or paused.
- Look at the placements of Performance Max campaigns in Reports. To do so, navigate to Reports – Predefined reports (dimensions) – Other – Performance Max placements – campaigns. You then get a report overview of where your campaigns are shown. If needed, you can exclude an unwanted placement in the campaign settings.
Disadvantages of Performance Max
Even so, Performance Max is not (yet) perfect. There is little information available about when your ads are shown. In addition, you have less control over who sees your ad. As mentioned, you can add audiences or remarketing lists, but Performance Max can also target beyond these.
When you have filled in your Performance Max campaign completely and correctly, you will achieve optimal results. If you don't set up the campaign correctly, however, you will see few results. In addition, a Performance Max campaign usually needs more budget than other types of campaigns.
In short, Performance Max can be a powerful tool for reaching your online marketing goals. It is important, though, to set up your campaign correctly. At BE Digital we are ready to help you plan, set up and manage Performance Max campaigns to take your business to new heights.